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While I start this blog, it hits me that I am a person who, once in a while, needs to do something outside of her comfort zone.
Obviously this could be anything because we are all different and what one calls outside the comfort zone, others experience it as relaxing and easy.
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I usually choose "exciting" things. For me something out of my comfort zone was when I went abseiling years ago. I found it frightening. Standing high on a tower, turning around and then having to hang back with the tips of your toes on that edge. It remains for me an unnatural feeling and something that probably will never reach my comfort zone! But the indescribable feeling of victory which runs through your body... the feeling that you conquered new ground within yourself because you made a decision to trust yourself and the other person on the ground. That is something that stays with me every time and regularly makes me decide to do something I describe as "very exciting and somewhat scary."
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Last year I went to night climbing at Fun Forest in Rotterdam. It is a climbing park where they have all kinds of survival trails. Heights and dark so…. a challenge in which I had to muster confidence in myself again. Each trail was always higher, harder and darker. A zip line in the dark... and then laugh, shriek and almost pee your pants while the trails intensified. In my experience I had climbed that night a huge mountain and like the last time I felt proud, glorious and happy!

Vertical Divider

​outside of the comfort zone
is where the magic happens

Vertical Divider

​For me, going out of your comfort zone, has to do with confidence in yourself and rely on something else. Rely on the good outcome, trust protection, trust in life? Give it a name that you feel comfortable with. For me personally, it is especially good for my confidence. I would, just like Pippi Longstocking, eventually with conviction be able to say to all that I have never done: "I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that."

As an artist I am no different in this process when I paint. I want to reach constantly outside my comfort zone when I'm creative. If my process of painting begins to emerge something which is clearly definable, and I have no connection with it, I'll leave that comfort area and I let go, no matter how beautiful that work could have become.
I believe that occasionally leaving your comfy zone helps you to explore new areas in yourself and provide another impulse in your life. Also it allows patterns to be broken, which often have to do with lack of confidence and perhaps fear of unknown areas.

Sometimes, situations may arise that almost forces you as a human being to leave your secure environment.
Until recently I painted always in a room at home. Truly an orderly mess, where only me could find all I needed and where I could do my thing, undisturbed and with everything I had available.
Until one day I realized I could no longer step back from my work and large canvases would not fit on my easel.
I could dedicate an entire blog to tell what went through me in terms of feelings and experiences. But the realization that I had no choice but to find a space outdoors was the only option if I wanted to continue to develop.
Time for me to go outside a comfort area again. To have confidence to find a studio and develop a vision for the rest of my adventure as an artist.
Within a few months I found a space through a friend of mine. A space close to my house, affordable, and where my buddy Mac (dog) can come with me.

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Vertical Divider

And while I am writing my first introduction blog, I feel proud, very proud even. I am proud of my family, who have remodeled the space and have ensured that the area has become a place where creativity comes first place. A place where the walls may be dirty and it's okay if there is paint on the floor!! A place where you feel like a child with paint in your hands and can discover! Wow, does that sound in or out of the comfort zone?But also a place where people can buy my artwork, can follow future workshops and where there is space to connect directly with other creative people.
​In short: A place where my heart feels at home and where I finally walk back from my canvas and just can comfortably dance between the paint splashes!